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Gill Strait, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of School Psychology and Health Service Psychology, Program Director of School Psychology,
College of Human Sciences and Humanities

Contact number: 281-283-3494
Email: strait@uhcl.edu
Office: Bayou Building 2529.04

Biography

Dr. Gerald Gill Strait is a Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP) in Texas, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, and Associate Professor of School Psychology and Health Service Psychology at the University of Houston–Clear Lake, where he serves as Program Director for School Psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of South Carolina and completed an APA-accredited predoctoral internship with Dallas Independent School District. He subsequently completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with the Special School District of St. Louis County, providing psychoeducational assessment and consultation to schools implementing multi-tiered systems of support.

Dr. Strait's research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of school-based academic, behavioral, and mental health interventions. His scholarship has centered on motivational interviewing, school-based mentoring, and adolescent mental health, with an emphasis on adapting evidence-based practices to reflect the values and needs of underserved communities. Recent work has examined school mental health workforce development, mentoring interventions, artificial intelligence in assessment and scale development, and the use of AI-simulated counseling interactions for training and evaluation purposes.

Dr. Strait directs an active research laboratory that includes graduate and undergraduate students and is committed to mentoring students as research collaborators. He has an extensive record of co-authoring conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications with students. Dr. Strait currently serves as Principal Investigator of a multi-year U.S. Department of Education grant supporting school-based mental health services and workforce preparation.

Publications

  1. Terry, J., Strait, G., Alsarraf, S., Weinmann, E., & Waychoff, A. (2025). Artificial intelligence in scale development: Evaluating AI-generated survey items against gold standard measures. Current Psychology, 44, 16339–16350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08240-w
  2. Horton, E., Simon, T., Schoonover, T., Powers, M., Baines, A., & Strait, G. (2025). A phenomenological investigation of mentors’ experience with a culturally responsive tier 2 modular school-based mental health treatment. Counseling Scholarship & Practice in Educational Communities.
  3. Horton, E., Simon, T., Baines, A., & Strait, G. (2025). Empowering horizons program: A bridge to culturally responsive tier II modular school-based mental health treatment. Journal of Professional Counseling: Practice, Theory, and Research.
  4. Qi, T., Strait, G., Roberson, A., & Terry, J. D. (2025). School‐based motivational interviewing: Change and sustain talks during goal setting. Psychology in the Schools. 54–85.
  5. Hart, M. J., Flitner, A. M., Kornbluh, M. E., Thompson, D. C., Davis, A. L., Lanza-Gregory, J., McQuillin, S., Gonzalez, J., & Strait, G. (2021). Combining MTSS and Community-Based Mentoring Programs. School Psychology Review, 1-15.
  6. Schanding Jr, G. T., Strait, G. G., Morgan, V. R., Short, R. J., Enderwitz, M., Babu, J., & Templeton, M. A. (2021). Who’s Included? Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of Students in School Psychology Literature Over the Last Decade. School Psychology Review, 1-13.
  7. Strait, G, Turner, J., Stinson, D., Harrison, S., Bagheri, J., Perez, T., Smith, B., Gonzales, J., Anderson, J., Simpson, J., & McQuillin, S. (2020). Paraprofessionals’ use of group school-based instrumental mentoring: examining process and preliminary outcomes. Psychology in the Schools.
  8. Terry, J., Weist, M., Miller, M., Strait, G. (2020). Motivational interviewing to promote effectiveness of selective prevention: An integrated school-based approach, Journal of Prevention Science.
  9. Strait, G., Williams, C., & Peters, C. (2019). Classroom-based motivational interviewing for improving college students academic performance: a randomized trial. Teaching of Psychology, 46(2), 164-167, DOI: 10.1177/0098628319834216
  10. Strait, G., Lee, E., McQuillin, S., Terry, J., Cebada, M., & Strait, J. (2017): The Student Check- Up: effects of paraprofessional-delivered Motivational Interviewing on academic outcomes, Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, DOI: 10.1080/1754730X.2017.1333915
  11. McQuillin, S., Strait, G., Smith, B., & Ingram, A. (2015). Brief Instrumental School-Based Mentoring for first and second year middle school students: Randomized Evaluation. Journal of Community Psychology, 43(7), 885-899.
  12. Strait, G., Smith, B., McQuillin, S., Terry, J., Malone, P., & Swan, S. (2012). A Randomized Trial of Motivational Interviewing to Improve Middle School Students’ Academic Performance. Journal of Community Psychology, 40(8), 1032-1039.